multixterm
(1)
名称
multixterm - drive multiple xterms separately or together
用法概要
multixterm [ args ]
描述
User Commands MULTIXTERM(1)
NAME
multixterm - drive multiple xterms separately or together
SYNOPSIS
multixterm [ args ]
DESCRIPTION
Multixterm creates multiple xterms that can be driven
together or separately.
In its simplest form, multixterm is run with no arguments
and commands are interactively entered in the first entry
field. Press return (or click the "new xterm" button) to
create a new xterm running that command.
Keystrokes in the "stdin window" are redirected to all
xterms started by multixterm. xterms may be driven sepa-
rately simply by focusing on them.
The stdin window must have the focus for keystrokes to be
sent to the xterms. When it has the focus, the color
changes to aquamarine. As characters are entered, the color
changes to green for a second. This provides feedback since
characters are not echoed in the stdin window.
Typing in the stdin window while holding down the alt or
meta keys sends an escape character before the typed charac-
ters. This provides support for programs such as emacs.
ARGUMENTS
-xa The optional -xa argument indicates arguments to
pass to xterm.
-xc The optional -xc argument indicates a command to be
run in each named xterm (see -xn). With no -xc
argument, the command is the current shell.
-xd The optional -xd argument indicates a directory to
search for files that will appear in the Files
menu. By default, the directory is: ~/lib/multix-
term
-xf The optional -xf argument indicates a file to be
read at startup. See FILES below for more info.
-xn The optional -xn argument indicates a name for each
xterm. This name will also be substituted for any
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User Commands MULTIXTERM(1)
%n in the command argument (see -xc).
-xv The optional -xv flag puts multixterm into a ver-
bose mode where it will describe some of the things
it is doing internally. The verbose output is not
intended to be understandable to anyone but the
author.
Less common options may be changed by the startup file (see
FILES below).
All the usual X and wish flags are supported (i.e., -dis-
play, -name). There are so many of them that to avoid col-
liding and make them easy to remember, all the multixterm
flags begin with -x.
If any arguments do not match the flags above, the remainder
of the command line is made available for user processing.
By default, the remainder is used as a list of xterm names
in the style of -xn. The default behavior may be changed
using the .multixtermrc file (see DOT FILE below).
EXAMPLE COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS
The following command line starts up two xterms using ssh to
the hosts bud and dexter.
multixterm -xc "ssh %n" bud dexter
FILES
Command files may be used to drive or initialize multixterm.
The File menu may be used to invoke other files. If files
exist in the command file directory (see -xd above), they
will appear in the File menu. Files may also be loaded by
using File->Open. Any filename is acceptable but the
File->Open browser defaults to files with a .mxt suffix.
Files are written in Tcl and may change any variables or
invoke any procedures. The primary variables of interest
are 'xtermCmd' which identifies the command (see -xc) and
'xtermNames' which is a list of names (see -xn). The proce-
dure xtermStartAll, starts xterms for each name in the list.
Other variables and procedures may be discovered by examin-
ing multixterm itself.
EXAMPLE FILE
The following file does the same thing as the earlier exam-
ple command line:
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User Commands MULTIXTERM(1)
# start two xterms connected to bud and dexter
set xtermCmd "ssh %n"
set xtermNames {bud dexter}
xtermStartAll
DOT FILE
At startup, multixterm reads ~/.multixtermrc if present.
This is similar to the command files (see FILES above)
except that .multixtermrc may not call xtermStartAll.
Instead it is called implicitly, similar to the way that it
is implicit in the command line use of -xn.
The following example .multixtermrc file makes every xterm
run ssh to the hosts named on the command line.
set xtermCmd "ssh %n"
Then multixterm could be called simply:
multixterm bud dexter
If any command-line argument does not match a multixterm
flag, the remainder of the command line is made available to
.multixtermrc in the argv variable. If argv is non-empty
when .multixtermrc returns, it is assigned to xtermNames
unless xtermNames is non-empty in which case, the content of
argv is ignored.
Commands from multixterm are evaluated early in the initial-
ization of multixterm. Anything that must be done late in
the initialization (such as adding additional bindings to
the user interface) may be done by putting the commands
inside a procedure called "initLate".
MENUS
Except as otherwise noted, the menus are self-explanatory.
Some of the menus have dashed lines as the first entry.
Clicking on the dashed lines will "tear off" the menus.
USAGE SUGGESTION - ALIASES AND COMMAND FILES
Aliases may be used to store lengthy command-line invoca-
tions. Command files can be also be used to store such
invocations as well as providing a convenient way to share
configurations.
Tcl is a general-purpose language. Thus multixterm command
files can be extremely flexible, such as loading hostnames
from other programs or files that may change from day-to-
day. In addition, command files can be used for other
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User Commands MULTIXTERM(1)
purposes. For example, command files may be used to pre-
pared common canned interaction sequences. For example, the
command to send the same string to all xterms is:
xtermSend "a particularly long string"
The File menu (torn-off) makes canned sequences particularly
convenient. Interactions could also be bound to a mouse
button, keystroke, or added to a menu via the .multixtermrc
file.
The following .multixtermrc causes tiny xterms to tile
across and down the screen. (You may have to adjust the
parameters for your screen.) This can be very helpful when
dealing with large numbers of xterms.
set yPos 0
set xPos 0
trace variable xtermArgs r traceArgs
proc traceArgs {args} {
global xPos yPos
set ::xtermArgs "-geometry 80x12+$xPos+$yPos -font 6x10"
if {$xPos} {
set xPos 0
incr yPos 145
if {$yPos > 800} {set yPos 0}
} else {
set xPos 500
}
}
The xtermArgs variable in the code above is the variable
corresponding to the -xa argument.
xterms can be also be created directly. The following com-
mand file creates three xterms overlapped horizontally:
set xPos 0
foreach name {bud dexter hotdog} {
set ::xtermArgs "-geometry 80x12+$xPos+0 -font 6x10"
set ::xtermNames $name
xtermStartAll
incr xPos 300
}
USAGE SUGGESTION - SELECTING HOSTS BY NICKNAME
The following .multixtermrc shows an example of changing the
default handling of the arguments from hostnames to a file-
name containing hostnames:
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User Commands MULTIXTERM(1)
set xtermNames [exec cat $argv]
The following is a variation, retrieving the host names from
the yp database:
set xtermNames [exec ypcat $argv]
The following hardcodes two sets of hosts, so that you can
call multixterm with either "cluster1" or "cluster2":
switch $argv {
cluster1 {
set xtermNames "bud dexter"
}
cluster2 {
set xtermNames "frank hotdog weiner"
}
}
COMPARE/CONTRAST
It is worth comparing multixterm to xkibitz. Multixterm
connects a separate process to each xterm. xkibitz connects
the same process to each xterm.
LIMITATIONS
Multixterm provides no way to remotely control scrollbars,
resize, and most other window system related functions.
Because xterm has no mechanism for propagating size informa-
tion to external processes, particularly for character
graphic applications (e.g., vi, emacs), you may have to man-
ually ensure that the spawned process behind each xterm has
the correct size. For example, if you create or set the
xterm to a size, you may have to send an explicit stty com-
mand with the correct size to the spawned process(es).
Alternatively, you can add the correct size argument when an
xterm is created (i.e., "-geometry 80x20").
Multixterm can only control new xterms that multixterm
itself has started.
As a convenience, the File menu shows a limited number of
files. To show all the files, use File->Open.
FILES
$DOTDIR/.multixtermrc initial command file
~/.multixtermrc fallback command file
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User Commands MULTIXTERM(1)
~/lib/multixterm/ default command file directory
BUGS
If multixterm is killed using an uncatchable kill, the
xterms are not killed. This appears to be a bug in xterm
itself.
Send/expect sequences can be done in multixterm command
files. However, due to the richness of the possibilities,
to document it properly would take more time than the author
has at present.
REQUIREMENTS
Requires Expect 5.36.0 or later.
Requires Tk 8.3.3 or later.
VERSION
This man page describes version 1.8 of multixterm.
The latest version of multixterm is available from
http://expect.nist.gov/example/multixterm . If your version
of Expect and Tk are too old (see REQUIREMENTS above), down-
load a new version of Expect from http://expect.nist.gov
DATE
April 30, 2002
AUTHOR
Don Libes <don@libes.com>
LICENSE
Multixterm is in the public domain; however the author would
appreciate acknowledgement if multixterm or parts of it or
ideas from it are used.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
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User Commands MULTIXTERM(1)
+---------------+------------------+
|ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+---------------+------------------+
|Availability | shell/expect |
+---------------+------------------+
|Stability | Uncommitted |
+---------------+------------------+
NOTES
This software was built from source available at
https://java.net/projects/solaris-userland. The original
community source was downloaded from http://source-
forge.net/projects/expect/files/Expect/5.45/expect5.45.tar.gz/down-
load
Further information about this software can be found on the
open source community website at http://expect.nist.gov/.
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